Cartapesta. Il Carnevale di Fano: Film und Gespräch

On the occasion of the Cologne Carnival, the Italian Cultural Institute Cologne will be showing the film "Cartapesta. The Carnival of Fano" in the presence of the director Andrea Lodovichetti.

CARTAPESTA is a story about the transformation of collective memory, a journey that explores the fine lines between real experience and mythical imagination. At its heart is an exploration of the Fano Carnival, the oldest carnival in Italy, told through memories, film footage and imagery rooted in the city of Fano for centuries. The art of cartapesta, or papier-mâché, is a tradition handed down from generation to generation by the maestri carristi, or float builders, who have mastered the art of building moving stages called carri through a combination of creativity, engineering and skill.

In Lodovichetti's film, a masked figure, the so-called Vulón, meets a child who knows nothing about the Fano Carnival. He accompanies him through a day full of parades, carnival costumes and sweets to explain to him that the carnival is not just a festival, but much more: a feeling, a state of mind that warms the heart of a city and an entire region.

Andrea Lodovichetti was born in Fano in 1976. After graduating in directing from the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema di Roma, he worked as a shooting assistant for the Oscar-winning Paolo Sorrentino on his films "L'amico di famiglia" and "Il Divo - The Divine", among others. As a director, screenwriter and producer, he was responsible for the award-winning documentary "Pescamare", among others. "Cartapesta, the Carnival of Fano" is his most recent work.